MUSKEGON, MI – A regional expert in Muskegon Wednesday described the width and the depth of the Midwest’s fight against invasive Asian carp species that threaten to move from the Mississippi River into the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes Commission Policy Director Matt Doss discussed the Asian carp and the health of the Great Lakes during a forum sponsored by the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission at the USS Silversides Submarine Museum on Wednesday, April 30.

“We know that fishing is a $7 billion industry in the Great Lakes and that’s part of what’s at risk,” Doss said. While there’s no evidence yet of a reproducing population of Asian carp in the Great Lakes, “the risk is real, the threat is real, and if they get in, there will be a significant impact.”

The Great Lakes Commission, which operates under commissions from Great Lakes states and U.S. Congress, takes its own stance on the issue but agreed with the report on many points.

The Army Corps study recommended that hydrological separation of the two water basins is the best long-term solution.

The Great Lakes Commission agreed with that recommendation, but disagreed on the price. The Army Corps report put the price of new infrastructure separating the two bodies of water at about $17 billion, while the commission thinks a more accurate price tag is between $4 billion and $9 billion.

“Our view is, that’s a cost that’s going to have to be borne anyway,” he said.

No simple solutions

Doss said there were no simple solutions.

But simply throwing up dams would threaten downtown Chicago with flooding. If Chicago-area water treatment plants are forced to discharge treated water into Lake Michigan, it could impact water quality. It also could hinder or halt navigation of the Great Lakes by ships.

“It’s not just a matter of putting dams in the water,” Doss said.

Doss said that it could be possible to build a facility where containers or bulk goods could be moved between two ships or barges in each body of water.

Weapons in the fight

In the short term, the focus is keeping Asian carp from moving farther upstream toward Chicago and coming up with barriers to prevent their spread.

Doss surveyed a variety of technologies being conceptualized for holding Asian carp back:

A lock system for shipping waterways that would pump out water so as to prevent the spread of aquatic species

Various types of physical barriers

A treatment plant that would kill all aquatic life in water before it travels downstream

Electric barriers in a specially-engineered channel

A screened flow gate.

The commission has also looked at different options for locating such barriers. One option is the Brandon Road Lock system, owned and operated by the Army Corps of Engineers Southwest or downstream of Chicago.